The Jane Austen Centre at 40 Gay Street in

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

, England, is a permanent

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

which tells the story of

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots oft ...

's Bath experience, and the effect that visiting and living in the city had on her and her writing. The building is part of a block (31–40 Gay Street) which has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Since 2001 it has hosted the annual Jane Austen Festival, the largest and longest running Jane Austen Festival in the world. Events include a Summer Ball and a costumed promenade through the centre of Bath. The Centre also has Regency Tea Rooms.

Waxwork

The Jane Austen Waxwork is a life size wax model of the author, commissioned by the Jane Austen Centre. It was unveiled at the Centre on 9 July 2014 and is currently on public display there. The only verifiable image of her is a small

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting met ...

painted by her sister Cassandra. This, however, has been acknowledged by experts as a ‘poor attempt’ and was described by her niece as ‘hideously unlike’ her aunt Jane. At the same time though, there exists many contemporary descriptions of her by friends and it was in this fact that the origin of the sculpture lies. In 2002, David Baldock, Director of the Jane Austen Centre, commissioned forensic artist Melissa Dring to create a new portrait of Austen, after reading about her work creating a likeness of

Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

for a film company, from eye-witness accounts. As David Baldock said: “We were always asked what

looked like and in a way the only reference point we had was Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra’s, very poor

and we didn’t feel it did her justice.” The portrait was unveiled in December 2002. The process was taken a step further in 2011, when the Jane Austen Centre commissioned a three-dimensional, life-size wax figure. Many visitors are often surprised by the size of the wax figure, standing at an impressive 5 ft 8". However, Jane was described in several accounts as being a "tall and slender" woman, and in 21st century measurements, it isn't all that different to today. Based upon the 2002 portrait, the wax figure's creation was undertaken by the portrait sculptor Mark Richards. During the three-year process it took to create the Jane Austen figure, Richards worked closely with Melissa Dring, along with hair and colour artist Nell Clarke, and designer Andrea Galer. The latter, dressing the completed figure in authentic period costume. The completed figure was unveiled to the world media on Wednesday 9 July 2014, at the Jane Austen Centre; the figure being displayed in a specially created space within the Centre.

References

External links

Jane Austen Centre website
{{Authority control Museums in Bath, Somerset Grade II listed buildings in Bath, Somerset Austen, Jane, Centre Literary museums in England Women's museums in the United Kingdom

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Waxwork

See also

References

External links